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Careful
by Evilida
Lisa Cuddy has never been married before, so she doesn't know if other husbands and wives feel as she does. It seems to her that marriage is something airy and insubstantial. If she stops believing in it, even for a second, it will disappear.
Lisa doesn't understand her husband's family. In a Cuddy family get-together, everyone talks about the time fourteen year old Lisa had decided to go skinny dipping in the lake before breakfast, thinking no one was around (except, of course, they were). The Wilsons discuss Mike's all-time favourite episode of the Twilight Zone and the best recipe for creme brulee. They talk as if they are casual acquaintances.
Cuddy was raised in a family of people who shouted at the tops of their voices, slammed doors, cried when they were sad and laughed when they were happy. She's too intelligent to make the mistake of thinking that the Wilsons didn't feel the same things she does just because their way of expressing themselves is so different than hers. There are clues, she knows, but she simply lacks the skill to interpret them. She wishes James would point them out to her. She needs some sort of guidebook.
There are evenings when Lisa Cuddy comes home from work tired and frustrated. She talks about everything that went wrong in her day, and James listens, and asks the right questions, and looks concerned or indignant at the appropriate time. She relaxes a little bit and she starts to talk about the things that went well and all the little funny incidents in her day, and James laughs and smiles and jokes with her. She doesn't know how she coped before he was there to listen. He makes her happy; he eases her anxiety and stress; and she loves him for it. She can't tell whether she is making him happy, and he hates it when she asks.
James Wilson was married three times before he married Lisa Cuddy. He's an expert on love gone wrong. He's determined not to repeat the same mistakes. Unfortunately, he could still make a new and different mistake. He knows that marriage is fragile and delicate and that he cannot afford to be careless.
Wilson loves Lisa's family - all those noisy and exuberant cousins and aunts and uncles. They're so open and obvious that it's ludicrously easy to be the person that they want him to be. He talks college football with her brothers. He listens to her uncle's stories. He dances with her awkward teenaged cousin and actually makes her smile. He relaxes, knowing that they can't spot his tells.
He wants to make his wife happy. Sometimes she is stressed and tired and irritable. Lisa wants to talk and he listens. It's not a chore; she's fascinating. She has no idea how endlessly interesting she is, and how much he enjoys watching all that strain and misery drain away.
It bothers him when she asks him whether he is happy. It's not a fair question. He doesn't want to lie but the truth would hurt her. If he could will himself to be happy, he would.
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Legal Disclaimer: The authors published here make no claims on the ownership of Dr. Gregory House and the other fictional residents of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Like the television show House (and quite possibly Dr. Wilson's pocket protector), they are the property of NBC/Universal, David Shore and undoubtedly other individuals of whom I am only peripherally aware. The fan fiction authors published here receive no monetary benefit from their work and intend no copyright infringement nor slight to the actual owners. We love the characters and we love the show, otherwise we wouldn't be here.
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